What am I doing

In this car?

Full driving report and review coming soon.

It’s a special kind of stupid

CNN/Money reports,

A first: Lincoln hybrid costs the same as a gas-only car

Really? The cost is the same? Or do they mean retail price? And I’m not just nitpicking here. Ostensibly, CNN/Money is a financial news service and one might reasonably make the presumption that a financial news organization would be in tune with costs versus retail price.

But let’s dig further.

The sticker price will be $35,180 — exactly the same as the non-hybrid version of the car.

So it is retail price, not necessarily “cost”. Ok, cleared that one. It’s just the headline which is stupid. Or is it?

Hybrid cars generally cost considerably more than non-hybrid versions of the same car. In many cases the extra cost of the car can cancel out what the owner saves on gas.

Over the years here we’ve been down this road so many times that I would think most news organs would just avoid this. Yet, here it is again. The old trope that hybrids cost so much more than “regular” cars. Not true and not true.

The rest of the article isn’t much better. It’s basically press release and some mindless rumblings from, oh god save me, an analyst.

Here’s my take on it. Ford probably makes a decent amount on the MKZ. If not, they’d be GM. So the idea that they’re giving a few points in profit to price these cars equivalently isn’t a big deal. In fact, said analyst says,

It’s not unheard of for a hybrid and non-hybrid versions of a car to be priced close to one another, Toprak said, but not exactly the same and not in the luxury market.

So aside from refuting the earlier part of their story, this analyst says something I don’t get at all. While it may not be standard practice in the luxury market, that sector is the one that can most easily absorb this kind of strategy because of the higher retail prices and the larger profit margins. That’s kind of obvious, no?

I guess not.

Episode #25 of What Drives Us is now available

Simply go here.

Or, search for “What Drives Us” on iTunes and subscribe there. Subscribers on iTunes get updated before anyone else.

Awesome all EV episode this week.

And you may ask yourself, where the hell have you been?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been here.

And please, tell a friend.

Uh, it’s news, well, sorta

Motor Trend is reporting, based on what is obviously a Japanese magazine, that Toyota is in the final stages if developing the first vehicle in the “expanded Prius range”. Here’s a picture as posted on Motor Trend:

Motor Trend reports that this is the Prius “Alpha” and it will be twelve inches longer and one inch wider than the current generation of Prius. MT calls this a “mini-mini-van” which seems ridiculous. I think it’s misleading in that minivans have sliding side doors and this one does not appear to (at least what we can see from the picture). Expanded Prius. Whatever. Prius max. Ok, if you have to. But it’s highly dubious to think that you can stuff an extra row of seat into a space twelve inches long and have no door to access them.

Further, for some reason Motor Trend has mixed in pictures of another Prius concept vehicle with no real explanation why other than both the “new” vehicles look somewhat like a Prius but none of them look like each other. I guess running with only one shot made them feel somehow inadequate.

MT is also reporting that this new Prius will be equipped with Lion cells rather than the Nihms Toyota has been using.

As usual, I’m skeptical. One thing I’ve learned in writing here for more than five years is that Toyota plays things very close to the vest and only releases information when they want to. All too often idle speculation turns out to be, well, idle speculation. Look, there’s a reason this stuff gets published on MT’s blog on not on their front page. This way, it’s easily deniable if it turns out to be a badly translated story from a Japanese car mag.

UPDATE: I don’t want to convey the idea that I think this won’t happen. I just think MT didn’t or couldn’t dig into this more to get us the real information. I think this story, like so many others, probably has some grains of truth and certainly contains some will-to-believe. Which is which I can’t say. I think the one photo of the proposed vehicle is compelling but after that there seems, to me, to be a great deal of speculation taking place. I do think, in general, that it would a great idea for Toyota to add a larger vehicle to the “Prius family” just as I can imagine a few cool additions to the “family”. In the end, what I think matters a lot less than what Toyota does.

Don’t you wish they were a publicly traded company?

Toyota announced today that it would be buying a $50M stake in Tesla, producers of the only highway capable EV on the market (it’s also one of the quickest vehicles on the planet). Toyota will turn over it’s recently closed NUMMI plant in the San Francisco bay area to produce Tesla’s new Model S roadster, due out in 2012.

Needless to say, this is huge news. Game changing news. On the What Drives Us podcast I’ve been flailing Toyota for seemingly allowing other (Nissan and Chevy) to take the lead in EVs (yes, yes, I know the Volt is a hybrid, sort of). With this partnership Toyota leapfrogs both companies partnering with the only company on Earth to make a viable EV.

The NUMMI plant is capable of producing as many as 200,000 vehicle per year, which for Tesla is a huge boon as they have previously been trying to buy empty buildings down in LA to make the Model S. Now, with the NUMMI plant and Toyota’s engineering (and Toyota’s cash), Tesla is positioned (as is Toyota) to become a multi-model EV leader in the next 18 months.

Toyota announced plans to work on as many as three cars together. They did not specifically say if they would all be Tesla branded or Toyota branded. That said, I know one podcast co-host who is wetting his pants contemplating a Toyota Spyder EV co-produced Tesla. Just sayin.

Congratulations to Tesla and to Toyota. In the end, it’s the car buyers who will win if they can combine the best from both companies and make killer EVs.

Are you interested in hearing the very first driving impressions of the prototype Prius PHV?

Well then, all you need do is click here and listen to Episode #12 of What Drives Us where I debrief Mr. Cooper in the midst of his secret driving experience. Reporting from a mostly undisclosed location somewhere inside the Torrey Pines Lodge in San Diego, my co-host, Danny Cooper and I talk about his experience driving the prototype Prius PHV.

It’s a great hour. Check it out. Right here.

Prius PHEV

(photograph courtesy of Toyota)

Earlier today Toyota unveiled the Prius PHEV within the confines of the tony Torrey Pines Lodge in San Diego. An exclusive list of invited media attended and had a chance to drive the PHV as well as participate in some seminars on “sustainability”. Festivities continue through tomorrow so I imagine the news stories will start flowing between now and then as it appears Toyota has not embargoed driving impressions of the new Prius (somewhat surprising).

Here’s Toyota’s FAQ on the Prius PHV.

While I languish at POG HQ here in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, my partner in crime, Danny Cooper of priuschat.com and co-host of What Drives Us is out there suffering through San Diego weather and what is surely an onslaught of underpriced media dinners. So, that means a full report on this week’s What Drives Us which should hit the streets in the next day or so (once we get this week’s podcast done). And yes, the What Drives Us take on the Prius PHV will be the definitive one. I would put forth that we might be only two reviewers who also own 2010 Prius (since the PHV is based on the 2010 Prius).

Check back soon and hear me grill Danny on the new PHV and whether or not he was able to sneak off to In-N-Out (it’s only a few miles down the road from your hotel Danny!).

Want to see Toyota’s future

It’s right here.

A nice site featuring all their EV/PHEV concept vehicles.

There is no way this can end well

And here’s where I rip CNN a new one.

Let’s face it, running a huge multi-national, like the proverbial sausage factory, isn’t pretty but that doesn’t stop millions of people from gobbling up the product.

This story, no matter how it ends, is going to be real ugly for Toyota.

Apparently, a person whom CNN describes as “former in-house defense attorney Dimitrios Biller” resigned from Toyota, cashing in a four million dollar severance package and walked out with more than 6,000 documents and emails from his former employer. In the article, Biller claims the documents are damaging to Toyota, “Not potentially, they are. They are very damaging,”

There’s little doubt in my mind that just about any lawyer could produce documents that were damaging to a former client. That’s the nature of legal representation, right or wrong, we’re only pondering half the story if we can’t admit that. So even under the best circumstances, this is going to be another nightmare for Toyota.

So the real question is, so what does he have? What do these documents show us?

So what did CNN learn?

The documents — some of which were reviewed by CNN — were sent by Biller to Toyota officials. There are numerous references to so-called “Books of Knowledge,” highly confidential information on design, safety systems and testing records allegedly generated by Toyota engineers on everything from roll-overs and roof safety to sudden unintended acceleration.

Here’s a photograph of one of the not-so-secret “Books of Knowledge” I took in January of 2009. It happens to be “the Book” for the third generation Prius. The man holding it is known simply as the “The Chief”. He’s Chief Engineer of the Prius, Akihiko Otsuka.

And this picture…

And this picture of The Chief actually consulting the book to respond to a question…

So, yeah, secret book of knowledge. The Chief referred to this “book”, well, folder, that appeared to contain a vast amount of very well organized data on the the third generation Prius, many times throughout the presentation and questioning.

Here’s how CNN described it;

highly confidential information on design, safety systems and testing records allegedly generated by Toyota engineers on everything from roll-overs and roof safety to sudden unintended acceleration.

Of course any company that designs and builds a car has this information. In fact, I would guess that every car company has this information on every vehicle they’ve made and yes, it’s confidential. Is that surprising or somehow “damaging” to Toyota?

Again, the question is, depends on what’s in there. But by no means does mere existence of this information mean Toyota has done something wrong. This is shoddy, tawdry reporting. Give me an example of something that’s damning from these documents which CNN claim they have examined. CNN does, later on, but it’s, well, read on please…

So far, we know an ex-Toyota lawyer grabbed a bunch of privileged communications and is now, now that he’s out and has his four very-large bonus, he’s claiming these documents are damaging.

Further on we read about a specific liability case. A case, as it turns out, which Biller defended Toyota in. The accident was a Camry rollover which Toyota settled for $1.5 million. The plaintiff’s lawyer in the case is quoted as saying,

Embry, who added Toyota provided just enough information to show Toyota vehicles “met the minimum standards.”

Perhaps sad but again, what I would expect from any company defending itself in a multi-million dollar and not proof of guilt by any means.

Again, from the CNN article:

Included in Biller’s documents is an e-mail he said he sent to his bosses summarizing negotiations. It says, “TMS [Toyota Motor Sales USA] concluded that it would be better to pay a premium to settle this case and avoid producing the ‘Books of Knowledge.’”

So Toyota decided to pay off this claim rather than divulge what is basically a blueprint for building the Prius, even more, they’re the results of building the vehicle using those plans and testing it. I’m sure there’s a lot of folks that would like to get that information for free. GM claims to have spent three quarters of a billion dollars designing, building and testing the Volt, so far. Who wouldn’t love to see “the Book” on the Volt? Do you think GM would fight to keep that information secret?

Although Toyota calls the materials “trade secrets,” Embry said,

Exactly.

So why, if Biller knew a judge had ordered all information produced, didn’t he produce it? He said he tried but was stopped by a superior who told him, “You have to protect the client at all costs.”

“Even if that includes,” Biller asked, “committing criminal acts or violating the law?”

The answer, Biller said, was yes.

Did he break the law? “No, I did as much as I could as a lawyer for a client to not break the law,” he said.

At least he follows orders.

For awhile.

Toyota says publicly that Biller is full of it and they will continue to fight to keep those documents private. I can’t blame them but I will add this, if there is something in there that is truly damning, I’d be at the head of the line to kick some Toyota ass. But the evidence has to be there. I won’t do it on the allegations of a former lawyer who left Toyota years ago because of a “nervous breakdown”, grabbed a bunch of privileged communications and then, four years later, threatens to make them public.

I want evidence. Where is the evidence? We have enough allegation and assumption on this issue. Enough to clog the news organs of this country all too much. Where are the real facts?

There’s no doubt CNN should be reporting this story. My question for them, when will they actually do some reporting? If their goal was act as flack for this former lawyer, job well done. If their goal was to inform the public, they haven’t really bothered to tell us anything important, have they?

And as I said at the top, there’s no way this can end well for Toyota. It just adds more ironic gasoline to the fire. Even if Toyota is successful in keeping “the Book” and rest secret, then they lose image wise. If they make it public, everyone gets everything they spent millions learning.

Yes, this is going to suck for Toyota.

And by the way, just for laughs, here’s The Chief and I later in the day…

One Prius owner’s tests results

Bob Wilson, one of the geniuses on the Prius Technical Group email list, with the use of an accelerometer claims he has managed to reproduce the 2010 braking issue. According to his findings when all the right conditions occur there is a 600 millisecond delay between the regenerative braking system and the stand friction braking system.

You can click on any of the graphs and see the in larger format.

Basically, what this shows is what we already knew. There is, in this case a 600 millisecond zone where the braking doesn’t increase (it doesn’t decrease either). Immediately after this the curve knees downward and the velocity of the vehicle decreases precipitously.

Again, this isn’t proof, per se, of anything we didn’t already know, just proof to confirm owners estimates the lag was about half a second long. Keep in mind, this is one test under one set of conditions and it is not necessarily indicative of what happen under different circumstances.

It’s clear that there is massive pressure for Toyota to address this issue and it’s clear to me that at this point, “education” isn’t going to cut it. They have to do something to change this lag time. From the reports I’ve read, new Priuses (made since sometime in December of 2009 to January of this year) have already incorporated a new set of ECU instructions that address this issue. More on that very soon.

2011 Honda CR-Z hybrid, time for someone else to be harsh

Normally, I’m the guy whose words tend towards the, shall we say, harsher end. So it’s especially nice to see someone else critical of something. Danny Cooper’s take on the new Honda 2011 CR-Z hybrid is refreshingly subtitled “-Another Honda Fail?” Go read his first glimpse review of the CR-Z.

After reading through the Priuschat news post on the new Honda I have to agree with what he wrote. If those are indeed the performance specs of the car this is another potentially huge fail for Honda. And I have to add here, I don’t get it. Honda is a great company and they make excellent products. They were first to market with a ground breaking hybrid but apparently they’re stuck with IMA and can’t seem to get better performance from it outside of the original Insight (which was a great hybrid).

I don’t know. The CR-Z certainly has the buzz. The legendary CR-X descendent has been eagerly anticipated by a lot of people but it appears that their waiting may have been in vain. That’s a shame.